


Enough

by Medie



Category: Alias
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-20
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-07 10:43:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/64368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All it took was the arrival of one Jack Bristow to completely put her off her game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enough

She had company. The slight motion of the curtain in her window told her that. A motion she only caught when she glanced up at her apartment as they pulled up before the building.

Hopping out of the big Dodge Ram, Will waved a cheerful goodbye at her coworker - Jason - as he drove away. He hadn't asked her about maybe going for a drink that evening and Will only realized it after his tail lights had winked out of sight around the corner. A sure sign of her distraction if there ever was one. Which sign was more telling Will didn't waste time debating. Both the fact Jase hadn't asked her out - which he'd done every Friday night for the past month - and the fact she had only just noticed it were loudly proclaiming just how off she was. Even though she'd accepted having to give up the world of journalism, she'd never really lost the skill set that she'd acquired in it. Her journalistic instincts were as sharp as ever and the woman who'd once been known to the world as Will Tippin usually missed very little.

All it took was the arrival of one Jack Bristow to completely put her off her game. If she was honest with herself, something she was learning to be more of, she would admit he didn't just put her off of it...he utterly demolished it. She'd thought time and distance would have given her some clarity on the man awaiting her in her apartment but just the thought of him left her as confused now as she'd been the last time she'd seen him. It had been foolish to expect it would be otherwise. She knew that instinctively, always had if she kept to her newfound policy of self honesty. Where Jack was concerned, there was very little about her life that made sense. Not even when she'd thought he was just some boring, stodgy businessman who sold airplane parts for a living and continually disappointed her best friend. Discovering her truth had only served to take him from boring and mystifying to scary as hell and absolutely inscrutable...to say nothing of when she'd started sleeping with him...

Will had given up trying to make sense of whatever had gone on or would go on between herself and Jack Bristow. The whole thing left her with a migraine the size of LAX and more confused than when she started. If it were anyone else, she would have considered it a relationship but it wasn't anyone else. It was Jack and Jack brought with him a spectacular amount of baggage. Baggage neatly monogrammed with Irina Derevko's name. So, whatever it was, Will had backed off of trying to understand what it was and had contented herself with keeping her head above the proverbial water and find her way in her new life. She couldn't imagine she'd be leaving it anytime soon and as much as she felt adrift in it...it was hers. If Jack showed up...he showed up. If Sydney showed up. Sydney showed up.

Ask no questions and just go with it. When it came to the Bristow family, Will had found it to be quite the advisable policy. If she'd adopted it sooner, she might've avoided the Witness Protection Program and a life in Nowheresville, Wisconsin.

Shaking off the melancholy which threatened at the thought, Will reached her apartment door and was unsurprised to find it unlocked. She called a soft hello at her neighbor then ducked inside her apartment to find it looking a little more...homey than usual.

The sight of it made her stop in her tracks and stare in awe. The sparsely decorated space somehow seemed cosier than usual. Jack had been busy where those candles? Her eyebrows rose with appreciation as she unzipped her jacket. "Wow." She stuttered out when Jack's hands landed on her shoulders, helping her off with her heavy winter's coat. "It, uh, looks." Finding her sense of humor, she smiled almost shyly at him. "I'm not, are you sure this is my place?"

He hung up the coat then turned to face her, giving her a look at the wry glimmer of amusement lurking in his gaze. "Quite sure."

Suddenly nervous, or was it unnerved, Will forced her eyes away from his and wandered away to investigate the changes. "This is amazing," she observed, inwardly kicking herself for the banal words as soon as they were out. Casual conversation with Jack was not something she did well. Though ordinarily a bit of a chatterbox, around him her legendary conversational prowess vanished as though it had never been. The woman who had made a career out of playing the empty-headed ditzy blonde always ended up without a thing to say to the man. Perhaps that was why. Idle chatter with Jack Bristow was not easily done. If the conversation had no worth, then it was not one he deemed worth having. "I --" she shrugged helplessly and turned to smile sheepishly at him. "Thank you."

Whether Jack was as thrown as she, Will couldn't really tell but he did nod once and take a small step forward. "I'm glad you like it. Sydney will be pleased. She's been meaning to send along a few things she thought you might like. I brought them along with me when I came."

That surprised her. "Sydney knows you're here?" Shock slipped into her tone and she suspected she looked as unsettled as she felt. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of Sydney knowing Jack visited her. She definitely didn't like the implication of Sydney knowing her friend was sleeping with, or at least had been sleeping with, her father. She couldn't imagine Syd would take it well at all. Will was quite convinced on some level, whether she knew it or not, Sydney was still hoping her parents would reconcile.

Will was no fool. She knew she was no threat to Irina Derevko, she wasn't sure she wanted to be, or her chances of a reconciliation with Jack. If Irina decided she wanted one, and Jack was amenable to the idea, little Wilhemenia Tippin wasn't going to be much of a threat at all. And while Will knew that, she wasn't sure Sydney would. If nothing, the whole thing would be nothing but a fantastical mess before the dust settled. If it ever did.

"No," Jack assured finally, relieving her fears and ending her inner freak out. "Sydney doesn't know I'm here. She did ask me to get these things to you, after everything she wasn't sure you were ready to see her again." He smiled slightly, ever so slightly, nodding at the few knicknacks and mementos he'd brought along. "She has no idea that I did so by bringing them here myself."

He took several swift steps forward and kissed her, the rare gesture of affection sending a rush of happiness through her. It was a surreal feeling. "It's good to see you." He noted in the quiet way he had. "You look well."

Will couldn't restrain the sudden burst of laughter that swelled up at the comment. "I look like I spent the day working on a construction site." She looked down at her own dusty and dirty clothing. "I should change." She frowned in disapproval, as if realizing just how messed up her clothing was, and spun away from him. Heading for her bedroom, she tossed the throwaway comment, "The CIA couldn't have found me a cushy office job?" over her shoulder. Dumping her flannel shirt in the clothes basket, she didn't hesitate to follow it up with her t-shirt and bra before digging around in her underwear drawer for a fresh bra. Ordinarily, she would take a shower just to wash away the stress and soreness from her muscles but company and...well, she wasn't going to be getting a shower at that moment unless Jack was going to climb in there with her. Since she wasn't sure, she'd probably have better luck predicting Jack Bristow's behavior if she went out and bought herself a ouija board, she wasn't about to suggest it.

"Blame the marshals," Jack responded from where he stood before her closet, idly leafing through her clothing. "I'm afraid their job hunting skills leave a good deal to be desired." Selecting a soft, bring red sweater, he turned to offer it. "I admit, the last thing I expected to find you doing was construction work."

She hadn't heard him follow her into the bedroom, which was nothing new really as the man moved like a cat, and she had to force herself not to rush to cover up. It certainly wasn't as if he hadn't seen her naked before but...there was something just a little too domestic for her tastes at that moment. "No more than me, the look on my face when I saw their choice -- " She laughed, pulling the sweater down over her head. "But, I suppose, getting me as far away from myself as possible was the whole point."

Jack selected a soft woolen skirt she'd bought a few weeks prior in a moment of whimsy and she slid it on. "Indeed, the construction business is hardly where one would look to find Wilhemina Tippin, up and coming Los Angeles reporter."

She winced at the use of her full name then smiled. "Hmm, best part of the Witness gig?" She waited for him to look over before smugly pointing out, "That's not my name anymore."

His eyes crinkled slightly in amusement. "That was a deal breaker if I recall correctly."

Will shook her head, laughing again. Jack Bristow was not a man one associated humor with and with good reason, but sometimes --"Yeah, well, _Jack_, let's see you go through life with a name like Wilhemina and not jump at the chance to change it. Besides -- " she smiled. "If you can't take pleasure in the little things --" her tone was perfectly pitched to project a carefree image but she knew full well it wouldn't fool Jack and it didn't.

"Willm" He began only to have her cut him off. She got enough pop psychology at work. Manny, the electrician on her team, was taking night classes and trying out what he was learning on his coworkers. Will was pretty sure he was failing with the stuff he was spouting.

"Why are you here, Jack?" She asked simply, walking past him out into the living room. "And don't tell me it was to bring a few knicknacks from Sydney. Anyone could've done that." She gestured to the candles, the cooking dinner, the entire room. "Plus, this? Is a bit much for a simple mail call."

Going to the refrigerator, she got herself a beer and waited for him to answer. She wasn't going to be satisfied with a few half-truths and the charm he'd perfected during years of CIA undercover work. Not tonight.

"You've changed." He observed simply.

"You should know." Will forced herself to be calm. "You changed me. You and your daughter." She sighed, regretting the words in the very same instant she spoke them. Resting her head against the refrigerator, she took a long slow swig of her beer then apologized, "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I just -- I tried so damn hard to make a life for myself here, one that's about as far as what I'd dreamt for in my life as to be a completely different life and just when I start settling in, Sydney shows up, blows it all to hell and I finally get straightened out from *that* and I come home to find you here. Completely out of the blue, no warning, you're just here and..." She shrugged. "You've done all _this_ and it's so shockingly out of character for you, I don't know what to think and the only thing I can come up with is that you want something from me. Now, what's going on Jack? What is it, exactly, that you want?"

His answer was in his eyes before he ever spoke a word and the intensity of it would've made her take a step back if she had anywhere else to go. Everything with Jack Bristow was in his eyes. He wasted very little energy on expression of movement, everything about him was streamlined and controlled. Everything, but his eyes. His eyes carried layer after layer of emotion. The story of his life was a story told in his eyes and for Will Tippin everything was about the story. She could no more resist his eyes than she could've resisted the tantalizing hints of SD-6 which had put her on a collision course with him in the first place.

"What do you want, Jack?" She repeated, her mouth so dry she could barely force the words out.

The speed which he closed the distance between them was that of a predator striking at prey. A lion lunging for a lamb who was only too happy to be caught. How Irina Derevko could have ever walked away from him Will would never understand. Countries, politics, prophecies...none of it meant anything to her in the face of someone like Jack.

As it happened, she and Jack took that shower after all. Dinner burned but Will didn't care. Eating pizza with Jack Bristow was as good as eating a salmon fillet. She had the answers to the questions Jack could answer and the rest could keep. He would tell her if, and when, she needed to know. She'd learned to accept that a long time ago. Some questions he would never be able to answer but...she'd also learned that the one thing he would never deny her was the right to ask.

And for now...that was enough.


End file.
